People of the Mexican altiplano / SUN 3-22-26 / Canon competitor / Catalyst for reckless behavior / Eliminated for not following the rules, informally / Sb, on the periodic table / 1980s video game character who hops between cubes / Duo with the 1999 hit "Steal My Sunshine" / Each of the tiny tufts on a dandelion has one

Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: "Sound It Out" — letter puns: circled squares in some theme answers are punny hints to other theme answers:

Theme answers:

• "ARE YOU WITH ME?" / INSTRUMENT (the letters "R" and "U" are "with" (i.e. next to) the letters "ME") (27A: The circles in 22-Across? / 22A: Triangle, for one)
• CUE TIPS / QUIET QUITTING ("Q"s are on the "tips," i.e. at the front, of their respective words) (45A: The circles in 41-Across? / 41A: Modern trend of employees doing the bare minimum)
• BEELINE / BABY BIB (there's a "line" (I guess ...?) of "B"s) (67A: The circles in 64-Across? / 54A: Highchair wear)
• TEA SETS / SITTING PRETTY (there are two "sets" of "T"s) (91A: The circles in 93-Across? / 93A: On easy street)
• SEES EYE TO EYE / ATOMIC CITY (there are "C"s running from one "I" to the other) (108A: The circles in 115-Across? / 115A: Nickname of Oak Ridge, Tenn., built in 1942 for the Manhattan Project)

Word of the Day: YAREN (30A: Nauru's capital) —

Yaren (in earlier times Makwa or Moqua) is a district of the Pacific island country of Nauru [population: 803]. It is the de facto capital of Nauru and is coextensive with Yaren Constituency. Yaren is located on the southern coast of the island and is the location of Nauru's government offices. // The district was created in 1968. Its original name, Makwa (or Moqua), refers to Moqua Well, an underground lake and primary source of drinking water for the Nauruan people. // Yaren is located in the south of the island. Its area is 1.5 km² (0.58 sq mi), and its elevation was 25 metres (82 feet) as of 2007. To the north of Yaren is Buada, to the east is Meneng, and to the west is Boe. // Yaren has a marine tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) with hot, humid conditions across the year. // Yaren (and sometimes Aiwo) is usually listed as the capital of Nauru. However, this is incorrect; the republic does not have cities nor an official capital. Yaren is accepted by the United Nations as the "main district". (wikipedia) (my emph.)

• • •

Corny letter-pun theme and a lot of garbage fill. Perhaps not the worst of times, but definitely not the best of times either. There was one semi-cool moment where I actually used a theme answer (SEES EYE TO EYE) to get another theme answer (ATOMIC CITY). Other than that, I didn't enjoy this one much at all. Some of the theme answers are pretty decent answers on their own. QUIET QUITTING I quite like, and SITTING PRETTY isn't bad at all. But that's all the joy the theme yields. And I've got major problems with at least two of the "Sound It Out" answer. First, if I'm taking the puzzle at its word, and the point is literally to "sound out" the letters, then what the hell is going on with the "ME" in INSTRUMENT!? In literally every other case in the whole danged puzzle, the puns work because you "sound out" the circled letters as letters. "R" = "ARE," "U" = "YOU," etc. etc. etc. But not so with that "ME." If you want to use "RUME" as your circled letters, then the answer should be "ARE YOU WITH EMMY?" It's true. Come on, you know I'm right. You may not care that the puzzle ignores its own dang rule, but you cannot deny that it does, in fact, ignore it. Precisely once. Just ... because. Also, how are those "B"s a "line?" There are four of them, but they do not form a "line" in any meaningful sense of that word. If they were consecutive, great, that's a "line." but "B" other letter "B" other letter "B" other letter "B" is not a "B" line. It's not. Again, you may not care, but it's definitely not. Any more than any number of "B"s (>1) in any answer is a "B" line. Even if this letter-pun stuff were my cup of tea, I'd still have to say the theme is poorly executed. And this letter-pun stuff is not my cup of tea. So ... bad day to "B" me, I guess.

And the fill, oof. Here's what I said about YAREN the last time I saw it, seven+ years ago , which remains the only other time I've ever seen it in my life in any context (my feelings about the answer have not changed):

I'm still laughing at YAREN. I mean ... what? It's bad enough I have to remember NAURU, a very very very tiny country. But its so-called capital? More people live In My Neighborhood than live in YAREN. I got YAREN and gaped at it. Checked the crosses. Shrugged. Thank god for crosses. Beyond that, the fill was rough all over.

And once again the fill was, in fact, rough all over. Exhibit A: RAN IT, which, astonishingly, crosses YAREN! Exhibit B: DUDED. Exhibit C: SEEDLET. And so on. The plural of "mafioso" is MAFIOSI, not MAFIOSOS (111A: Family members). See for yourself. If you're gonna go and get all Italian on us, at least finish the job, yeesh. I nearly died on the SEMANA / ANTIMONY cross, first because I misspelled SEMANA as SEMENA (making some kind of sound analogy from Fr. "semaine") (87A: Seven days in San Juan) and second because I never can really believe that ANTIMONY is an element and not, you know, a feeling (89D: Sb, on the periodic table). As in "I feel great ANTIMONY for this puzzle."  RAN IT, ON IT, "SO THIS IS IT" ... Cousin ITT. Lottta "IT's in this grid. Also, lotta LOTTEs (just the one, but that's more than zero, and thus a lot more than I care to see) (old school crosswordese, though, so not a big problem). Distracting to see TEASE in a letter-pun puzzle when it has nothing to do with "T"s. Also to see Q-BERT, which has a "sounded-out" "Q" in it (97A: 1980s video game character who hops between cubes). See also "DQED" (36D: Eliminated for not following the rules, informally). Weak concept, weak execution, whaddyagonnado? (go back to watching March Madness basketball as fast as I can, actually).

Bullets:

• 90D: Tufted parts of horses' legs (FETLOCKS) — I am no horse anatomy expert, but I like this word. Briefly got it confused with HOLLYHOCK because that's the name of Bojack Horse(!)man's half-sister on Bojack Horseman. (they both think she's his daughter for much of the series, which is why he says "daughter" in this clip)

• 31A: Digital ID? (SSN) — because it's composed of ... digits. I assume.
• 101D: People of the Mexican altiplano (OTOMI) — I've definitely seen OTOMI in the grid before (you couldn't invent a more crossword-friendly 5—alternating v-c-v-c-v, terminal "I" ... just amazing), but I have to admit I could not tell you what "altiplano" means. So, for me, and maybe for you ...

The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the latitude of the widest part of the north–south-trending Andes. The bulk of the Altiplano lies in Bolivia, but its northern parts lie in Peru, its southwestern fringes lie in Chile, and it extends into Argentina. (wikipedia)

• 1D: Jay Gatsby's obsession in "The Great Gatsby" (DAISY) — read this last year for the 100th anniversary. I was spared having to read it in high school, and I didn't get around to reading it until I was in my 40s. I liked it OK, but I blew through it and didn't think much about it that first time. This time, I paid more attention, and I really really loved it. Not sure it's great high school reading material, but it is a genuinely beautifully written book. 

• 8D: Duo with the 1999 hit "Steal My Sunshine" (LEN) — come on. The great spy novelist LEN Deighton just died and instead of referring to him you're giving me an admittedly catchy but very old song by a band that had zero other hit songs? Bah. I'm reading Deighton for the first time right now, after seeing many people, including several friends, profess their admiration for him over the years. I've started with The Berlin Game and so far, I'm loving it. It's got sentences that stop you in your tracks they're so well written. Not many writers in any genre write sentences that can do that.

On the other hand, "Steal My Sunshine" is a pretty fun song, I have to admit...

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. fictional crossword tournament representation alert!

You can stream Elsbeth on Hulu (at least that's what I did).

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Amazon affiliate on TV / SAT 3-21-26 / Not accepting, perhaps / Accepted defeat, in modern parlance / Things that are tough on the outside and doughy on the inside? / Creatures that attack Isengard, in fantasy / Sculptor Jeff known for his steel balloon animals / Cavalry member in Russia, historically / Parts of a story structure? / Titular Dr. Seuss character

Constructor: Boaz Moser

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Nowell Codex / Cotton MS Vitellius A XV (2D: Classic poem whose sole surviving manuscript is kept in the British Library = BEOWULF) —

The Nowell Codex is the second of two manuscripts comprising the bound volume Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, one of the four major Old English poetic manuscripts. It is most famous as the manuscript containing the unique copy of the epic poem Beowulf. In addition to this, it contains first a fragment of The Life of Saint Christopher, then the more complete texts Wonders of the East and Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, and, after Beowulf, a poetic translation of Judith. Due to the fame of Beowulf, the Nowell Codex is also sometimes known simply as the Beowulf manuscript. The manuscript is located within the British Library with the rest of the Cotton collection. // The current codex is a composite of at least two manuscripts. The main division is into two totally distinct books which were apparently not bound together until the 17th century. The first of these, originally owned by Southwick Priory in Hampshire, dates from the 12th century and contains four works of prose. // It is the second, older manuscript that is more famous. This second manuscript is known as the Nowell Codex, after the antiquarian Laurence Nowell, whose name is inscribed on its first page; he was apparently its owner in the mid-16th century. At some point it was combined with the first codex. It was then acquired by Sir Robert Cotton. In his library, it was placed on the first shelf (A) as the 15th manuscript (XV) of the bookcase that had a bust of the Emperor Vitellius, giving the collection its name. The Nowell Codex is generally dated around the turn of the first millennium. Recent editions have specified a probable date in the decade after 1000.

• • •

Another easy one today. No particularly exciting elements, but it's sturdy, ungunky, fine. Strangely, I think the NE corner is my favorite part—I say "strangely" because corners in a puzzle like this can seem like an afterthought, since all the showy stuff is happening in the middle. The answers themselves aren't particularly showy through that middle section, but the large amount of white space is. This is a grid that's built to showcase the stacks of long answers running through the center. The corners take whatever shape they take and you fill them best you can, but those corners aren't (typically) the stars. Today, though, the central answers seemed admirably smooth, but not very grabby. I also don't know what FREE RUNNING is. I guess if you're doing it, it's probably exciting, but as a two-word phrase, seems kind of meh. PARKOUR—a great-looking answer. FREE RUNNING? Meh. The middle is also security-obsessed in a way that I find unappealing (ARMORED CARS, SECURITY LEAK). And INTERNET TROLL, while a perfectly valid phrase, feels redundant (unless you are specifically trying to differentiate it from the kind that lives under a bridge, you'd just say "troll"). Again, everything through that middle seems acceptable, and I do love SWEET AND SOUR ... anything, really ... but there's just something more exciting about the NE corner. The dramatic declaration of "I WANT OUT!" The cliffhanger of "NEXT TIME..." And the detectives (SLEUTHS) lurking in the margins, surveilling their targets from the booth of a diner, drinking coffee and eating STEAKS (they're called "steak-outs" for a reason!). True, that corner does have a certain TOILET REEK, but that's part of the charm. Seriously, though, "I WANT OUT!" over "NEXT TIME..." is particularly nice. 

As for difficulty ... no. There wasn't any. I thought there might be when I couldn't get the Acrosses in the NW corner at first, but then I started in on the short Downs (ASK / MEET / STRAY) and then TASTE was obvious, and then bam, there's my old friend YEETS, and now we got something:

From here I can work those NW Acrosses from the back end. I was already thinking of "story" as a building part, so I-BEAMS didn't take too long (if you've seen a lot of crosswords, you've seen a lot of I-BEAMS). Wanted "Ready" to precede "SET," but "GET SET" was my next guess. I had a brief moment of wondering why "ETC ETC ETC" wouldn't fit at 3D: "And so forth" ... but then realized that the answer was actually the fully written out ET CETERA. From there, the solve took a fairly predictable path, as I followed the path of least resistance and flowed from the NW corner right through the center of the grid to the SE corner and then looped back up again, leaving only the much more cut-off NE and SW corners.

From there, it looked like the SW corner was going to be the harder one (tougher to get into a corner via the back ends of answers than the front ends), so I went there, expecting trouble, but instead I got TOOK THE "L" immediately (55A: Accepted defeat, in modern parlance). Like YEETS, it is slangy, and like YEETS, yes, you have seen it before. Well, not in the past tense—this is actually a debut—but there have been four TAKE THE "L"s since 2020—and I think I've posted this song every time:

Once TOOK THE "L" was in, the corner wasn't much trouble. IN DENIAL was slightly hard to parse (59A: Not accepting, perhaps), and I would've died on HIRONO without the crosses (40D: Hawaii senator Mazie), but the crosses were clear, so ... done. Finished up in the NE corner, which as I've said is my favorite part of the puzzle, so that was nice. Nice to end on a high note. All in all, clean, smooth, decent. Not much to excite or enrage, but ... it'll do.

[53D: Amazon affiliate on TV]
[She is affiliated with the Amazons]

Bullets:

• 27A: It's not nice to walk in this (SLEET) — I think I was thrown by the lack of wordplay in this clue. "Nice"? I was like "why that word? Is there some idiom being played on here?" But no. It's just ... unpleasant to walk in sleet. I would've said difficult, if not (at times) impossible. I remember trying to get home from school once in Ann Arbor and the streets and sidewalks were pure ice and my route was *slightly* uphill and ... things got comical. It was OK when I could just walk on people's lawns, but crossing streets ... even if I managed to stay upright, I sort of just ... slid ... back from where I came. It's possible I ended up (deliberately) on my hands and knees at some point. You gotta do what you gotta do.
• 31A: Brady bunch? : Abbr. (TDS) — ugh, a Tom Brady football clue. This was my least favorite thing about the NE. As "?" clues go, I liked the ARMORED CARS clue a lot better (35A: Things that are tough on the outside and doughy on the inside?) ('cause ARMORED CARS contain money, i.e. "dough").
• 43A: Sculptor Jeff known for his steel balloon animals (KOONS) — big weird puffy pink things, that's what I think when I think of KOONS. Whimsical. Vivid. Fun.

• 60A: Join arms? (ENLIST) — another "?" clue I didn't love. It just doesn't quite work, wordplay-wise. You join the army ... where you might carry arms ... I dunno. The phrasing just misses the mark. Also, still not really happy to see war-related answers right now (during "Operation: Furious Incompetence"), esp. when the puzzle tries to make it light-hearted.
• 25D: Valuable commodity in "Dune" (SPICE) — there's another Dune movie coming out later this year. Also, a Dune font generator has apparently been released for general use and as a result my social media feed has been overrun with textual ridiculousness. For example:

That's all. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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